In 1980, Charley Pride had a No. 1 single with “Honky Tonk Blues”. The song is a cover of a Hank Williams classic that came out in 1952. On Williams’ Moanin’ The Blues album, “Honky Tonk Blues” was written by Williams.
Pride’s version of this country classic is part of his There’s A Little Bit Of Hank In Me record. The entire project is full of Pride singing Williams’ songs.
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Still, it’s “Honky Tonk Blues” that remains the biggest hit from There’s A Little Bit Of Hank In Me. The memorable song says, “Yeah the honky tonk blues / Well Lord I got ’em, / I got the honky tonk blues.”
Other songs on There’s A Little Bit Of Hank In Me include “My Son Calls Another Man Daddy”, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”, and “A Mansion On The Hill”. After “Honky Tonk Blues”, Pride released one more single from the record, “You Win Again”. That song also landed at the top of the charts.
Other Artists Who Covered “Honky Tonk Blues” by Hank Williams
Pride’s version of “Honky Tonk Blues” might be the most successful single, but he is far from the only artist to have put their own spin on this song.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s version of “Honky Tonk Blues” is part of their iconic Will The Circle Be Unbroken record.
Williams’ son, Hank Williams Jr., recorded it with his son and late father as part of Three Hanks: Men With Broken Hearts, which came out in 1996. In 1982, Waylon Jennings recorded a version for his Back On Black album.
Perhaps the most interesting cover took place in 2006. That year, Dion released Bronx In Blue. The entire record is a celebration of the music that shaped Dion (whose full name is Dion DiMucci), including “Honky Tonk Blues”.
“Hank Williams seemed so total to me, so committed to the lyric,” Dion, who grew up in the Bronx, tells NPR. “He would actually rip the ends of the words off at the end of the sentence. It sounded like he’d bite into the word and rip it off.”
Still, it’s Pride who perhaps has the strongest affiliation to Williams. On January 7, 1967, Pride made his long-awaited debut at the Grand Ole Opry. The first Black performer since DeFord Bailey in 1941, Pride chose to sing “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love With You),” another Williams classic. That song is also part of There’s A Little Bit Of Hank In Me.
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